An International Conference entitled "Close Binaries in the 21^st Century: New Opportunities and Challenges," was held in Syros island, Greece, from 27 to 30 June, 2005.

There are many binary star systems whose components are so close together, that they interact in various ways. Stars in such systems do not pass through all stages of their evolution independently of each other; in fact their evolutionary path is significantly affected by their companions. Processes of interaction include gravitational effects, mutual irradiation, mass exchange, mass loss from the system,...

This book provides an overview of many of the dramatic recent developments in the fields of astronomy, cosmology and fundamental physics. Topics include observations of the structure in the cosmic background radiation, evidence for an accelerating Universe, the extraordinary concordance in the fundamental parameters of the Universe coming from these and other diverse observations, the search for dark matter candidates, evidence for neutrino oscillations, space experiments on fundamental physics, and discoveries of extrasolar planets. This book will be useful for researchers and graduate...